


Shrine Shenanigans

by crowcards



Category: Persona 4
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pining, Short Story, kind of an au? idk how to describe it, literally just Adachi getting swoony over the hot gas station attendant, persona 4 au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27568366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowcards/pseuds/crowcards
Summary: Adachi loses something in the shrine. This something determines whether or not Dojima will scold him for the day, so naturally he panics. During his search, he bumps into a certain someone.
Relationships: Adachi Tohru/Izanami (Persona 4)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Shrine Shenanigans

  
_“Where the hell is it?”_

The detective was on all fours, his heart thudding in his chest, as he smoothened the shrine’s shortened grass. Though honestly, considering that the item he was looking for wasn’t that small, it’s not as if he was going to find it any faster this way. However, all of that logic was thrown out the window the moment he realized what his mistake was. 

As much as he hated to admit it, the clumsy rookie schtick that he loved to put on so much was partially genuine. While it didn’t happen as often as he made himself out to be, there were still the occasional moments where he’d forget his house keys or trip over a stray branch while running. What’s terrifying about putting up a front is that some of those qualities may end up becoming a part of you, but that’s besides the point. 

“Damn it, Dojima-san is really going to kill me now” he moaned, burying his head into his hands. Maybe if he squeezed it hard enough, he’ll wake up from this terrible nightmare and laugh it off as some silly stress produced dream. 

“Who’s going to kill you?” 

Someone spoke up, causing the dark haired man to freeze in his place. Great, just what he needed, someone to witness his embarrassment. He gritted his teeth and turned his head, only to spot someone who he didn’t expect to see. 

Standing quite a bit behind him was the gas station attendant, Nami Kamiyama. Most of the time he’d see her standing outside of Moel’s, in her regular red and white attendant uniform. However, this time she was dressed in something more casual, a blue blouse accompanied by a black skirt that went down to her knees. Despite being everyday wear, he couldn’t help but silently admit to himself just how nicely it shaped her body. 

“U-uh, hey Kamiyama-san! No work today?” He blurted out stupidly in an attempt to change the subject.

Unfortunately, the dark haired woman wasn’t that dumb. She ignored him and took a few steps forwards, “Who’s planning on harming you?” she repeated.

Was it just him or did her red stare grow intense? The more she looked at him, the more he felt as if he was going to melt. However, he was unsure if that was out of fear or because of how stunning she was. Wait, stunning? _“Well, she’s certainly gorgeous but...hey hold on get ahold of yourself!”_

“That was a figure of speech, no one is going to kill me!” He quickly managed to reassure her. “ _Well Dojima-san might split my head open, figuratively and literally”_ he grimly added to himself. 

In the end, his words seemed to have affected her positively, judging from how her shoulders slowly began to settle. “Then why are you on the ground? Are you trying to imitate the shrine’s guardian? That’s an odd way of showing respect.” 

“What? No it’s nothing like that!” He exclaimed, immediately rising to his feet. _“Shrine’s guardian? What the hell even is that?”_ For the sake of sanity, he figured it was best not to ask, as he dusted off his pants. “I’m just trying to look for something.”

His words seemed to only confuse her, as she tilted her head to the side in an almost innocent manner. “Oh? What does the shrine have that you need so badly?” 

Of course she wasn’t going to leave it at that. Looks like he couldn’t spare himself the embarrassment this time. “It’s an envelope” he finally admitted with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was supposed to deliver it to the precinct, but I seemed to have er...misplaced it while questioning someone here.” 

“Misplaced” was a generous word choice. In reality, he lost it by placing it on top of one of the statues because his hands got too sweaty. Unfortunately, this world seems to enjoy torturing him at any opportunity given, because the moment he turned back around after the questioning, the envelope was gone. He figured that the wind gently pushed it off the surface, considering that it wasn’t too big. However, during the 3 minutes he spent searching around the statue, he was beginning to believe that the wind carried it beyond the shrine. If that ended up being the case, then he was most certainly a goner. 

“I see”. Judging from the small nod she gave afterwards, he figured that she bought his half true story. 

For a moment, he expected her to wish him luck in his findings and leave him alone. It was practically the norm for him, not that he was complaining, he would probably refuse anyways. Which is why, her next action caught him completely off guard. 

In an instant, the woman was in front of him, grasping her hands in his, her typical goofy smile stretching across her lips. “I know! How about we work together? It’s like what I always say, ‘you get work done quicker if there’s someone there to help you’!” 

He just stood there, attempting to process the mixture of emotions that were swirling up within him. For starters, he was a bit relieved that she shifted back into her regular eccentric self. At the same time, he felt his cheeks begin to heat up, his heartbeat ringing in his ears, as she closed her smaller hands around his. She has done this a couple of times before, making him believe that she simply had zero concept of personal space. At first, it had shocked him, asides from handshakes, he hasn’t had much contact with others. Despite him questioning her about it, it continued, and after a while he had started to get used to the sudden action. 

So why was he getting so nervous?

“Hellooo, Adachi-saaann?” A pale hand waving in front of his face snapped him back to reality.

“I-I’m here!” That’s right he was in the middle of a conversation. He chuckled awkwardly, internally cursing himself for getting so distracted over something so trivial. Adachi scratched the back of his neck. “Um...could you repeat that?”

The gray haired woman cracked a smirk and untangled her fingers from his, much to his disappointment. “You’re not very attentive today are you?”

At that, he felt his cheeks heat up again, though this time it was out of embarrassment. Worst part was that he couldn't deny it because she was totally right. “I just have a lot on my mind okay? If I don’t find that envelope, I’m screwed!” 

“So you do want my help.”

“That’s not what I-”

“Great!” Nami completely cut him off before he could say anything else much to his chagrin. “I’ll look over here, and you can search over there!” She pointed to the opposite end of the shrine, which was practically identical in appearance. 

He exhaled a sigh, knowing that there was nothing he could do to change her mind at this point. The male didn’t want to admit that he needed help, he wanted to believe that he could do it all by himself. Though realistically, that option was probably not going to fare well for him. In the end, he tentatively trudged to his designated spot, heels dragging dirt behind him. 

The first couple of minutes were spent crouched in the grass, finding nothing but stray rocks and dirt. Lots and lots of dirt, but no envelope. Nami was awfully quiet as well, not even the occasional random comment. This led him to believe that she got bored of the search and ditched him for something more interesting. To confirm his suspicions, he twisted himself to the side, craning his head forward to glance at the other side of the shrine. Surprisingly enough, she was still there, searching intently. 

For a few seconds, he noticed how she didn’t glance up even once, as if she was truly dedicated to helping him. He couldn’t help but internally scoff at the notion. Why would she care so much about helping him anyways? For some reason, that thought didn’t upset him. 

As he was turning back around, he spotted something white from the corner of his eye. _“Hold on, is that..?”_

Partially buried in the dirt with the bottom slightly bent, was the envelope he was searching for. Relief crashed over him like a tidal wave, he was saved! Grinning from ear to ear, he crawled over to where it was slightly lodged in the earth and began tugging it out. 

His chest grew warm with pride, _“Maybe this day isn’t so bad after all! I can go back to the station, hand in this stupid envelope, and forget that this all ever happened.”_ As he was self absorbed in his gloating, Adachi felt an odd sensation resonating from his fingertips and up his hand. At first, he thought that he was unconsciously brushing his fingers up against the small patches of grass. However, as the tickly feeling began to reach his knuckles, he figured that something wasn't right. 

An onyx eye curiously peeked down at his hand, only to regret that decision almost immediately. Scuttling up his hand so casually and unbothered was a cockroach. For the first few seconds, his mind went blank with fear, as it attempted to process it. When the bug came too close to the sleeve of his dark navy jacket for his liking, he let out a startled yell, shaking his arm wildly. 

“EIYYAHHH! Get off, get off, get off!"

Somehow, that worked, but to his horror, it landed on the envelope he was trying to grab. He figured that it was too far gone to save at this point, and scooted backwards in a lame attempt to escape. Unfortunately, during the struggle, his foot ended up slipping, his back colliding into the hard surface of torii behind him. 

Of course the commotion ended up capturing the attention of Nami, who was racing over to him, wide-eyed. “Are you alright Adachi-san? What happened?” 

He couldn’t do anything but stare at her stupidly, rattled from what he had just witnessed. All he could manage out was a “Fine, alright.” 

The taller woman quirked an eyebrow, staring at him quizzingly. She gradually began to lean a bit closer to him, mumbling something to herself. 

He couldn’t hear what she was saying due to the blood pounding in his ears, his heart rate not seeming to settle down. He figured that these symptoms were due to the scare he received just a few seconds prior. Though before he could mull on them any more, the dark haired woman in front of him perked up, as if she had spotted something. 

“Oh would you look at that, it’s right there!” The woman was practically beaming as she walked off. 

At first he was confused, glancing over at the area she was walking to, before it occurred to him. She had spotted the envelope he left behind in his moment of panic. The male breathed out a sigh, pushing back locks of his messy black-brown hair, finally beginning to settle down. 

“Here you go! It was covered in dirt so I wiped it off.” 

He cracked open his eyes only to be met with the sight of Nami, smiling down ever so fondly at him. She held out the envelope, which was now muddled down to a more brown-white color, considering that it was caked in dirt. 

Slowly pushing himself off of the ground, he patted his pants down once more and took it from her gentle grip. He couldn’t help the tired smile that made its way to his lips. “Thank you…” the word died on his lips the moment he noticed that she was holding something dark brown in the other hand.

It was the cockroach that nearly gave him a heart attack. 

“Kamiyama-san?” He sputtered, pressing his back up against the red gate, “What are you doing? Put that down!”

She blinked a couple of times before glancing down at the insect which was beginning to crawl up the sleeve of her blouse. “You mean this?” 

“Um, yeah! What else?”

This only seemed to confuse her further as she used her other hand as a new surface for the bug to walk onto. “Why? It’s harmless to humans.” When it did, she extended her hand out, practically shoving it in his face. “See, it’s not doing anything.”

“Get that thing away from me!” He shrieked, scrambling away from the woman in front of him, nearly tripping on his own feet as he did so. 

At last, she seemed to finally register what was going on, judging from the small “oh” she made with her lips. “Adachi-san, are you scared of bugs?”

This question caused him to freeze up,face heating up out of embarrassment. “N-no! They’re just gross that’s all!” 

Nami remained silent for a couple of seconds before taking a few steps towards him. “You don’t need to be scared, humans are much stronger than bugs are.” 

He took a couple of steps back, “I said I’m not scared!” The moment those words left his lips, she sped towards him, the bug still cradled in her hands.

This only served to absolutely terrify him as he attempted to run away from her. “Wait, no, get away from me!”

“Oh come on, see he wants to say hi!”

“Well I want _it_ away from me!”

“Don’t be so mean, haha!”

In the end, he resorted to taking the chase outside the shrine, figuring that its small land area will eventually result in her trapping him. Even though she spent most of her time standing around, she had incredible stamina, not letting up on the chase. Their skirmish ended up leading them to the gas station, where after a couple of laps around it, Adachi nearly collapsed against the telephone pole.

Thankfully, Nami ended up growing bored of the chase and went to the other side to drop off the roach. 

With a hand pressed up against his chest, the man panted heavily, glancing up at the still bright blue sky. Thankfully not a lot of time has passed, so he could probably drop the envelope off at the precinct and still have time to spend the rest of his time doing whatever. That was at least if he could escape without Dojima noticing. 

_That’s right, Dojima._

If it wasn’t for Nami helping out, his boss would’ve most certainly had his neck. While he did nag him for practically everything, losing something crucial was not a line he wanted to cross with that man. Just imagining it was enough to bring a chill up his spine. 

“I’m back!”

Blinking the sun out of his eyes, the lean male averted his gaze from the zenith and over to Nami who had emerged from behind the gas station. 

“It’s about time you got rid of it” he sighed and scratched the back of his head.

Coming to a stop in front of him, she chuckled, shooting him her signature easygoing smiles she’d give while attending. “I still don’t understand how you’re so scared of it, you can easily overpower it.” She sounded playful, but there was a bit of an underlying curiosity to her tone that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. 

“Like I said, I’m not-“

She interrupted him. “Even then, I still had a lot of fun today. We should hang out more often!” 

Adachi stared at her, dumbfounded. Despite her playful tone, she sounded serious. As if she wasn’t just saying that out of an act of kindness but rather because she was genuinely interested in him. He felt a warm fuzzy feeling build up in a chest, unable to stop the smile that made its way onto his face. “Yeah, same here.” 

His words, while simple, seemed to be enough to make her laugh, her red eyes gleaming with joy. “That’s good to hear.” 

For a second, he found himself thinking just how nice her laugh sounded to his ears. Slightly frustrated, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind before it could infest. Why was he acting so weird today? Was the excess amount of work Dojima assigned finally getting to him? 

That couldn’t be it because deep down he wanted to feel like this more often.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally I wanted it to be a fic where Adachi freaks out over a bug and Izanami makes fun of him for it, but I decided to expand upon it a bit more. Sorry it's so short, I wanted to write something a little more cutesy to fill up the adanami tags, because I have some angst planned for the next one. 
> 
> Anyways, here's some stuff to take note of! I headcannon that Izanami goes by a fake name during her gas station attendant guise because telling people that she's a goddess kinda defeats her whole purpose. Not many people know it though since barely anyone actively engages with her, so she's just kinda known by many as being that gas station attendant dude. Her first name, Nami, is literally just shortened Izanami. Her last name, Kamiyama means "god mountain" (I wanted to incorporate her full name and also hint at her being a goddess but in a very subtle manner). In this fic they already know each other and are practically friends/on friendly-terms, so Adachi knows what her "name" is. Her outfit is also a reference to an artist on twitter I follow who makes really good adanami art, so if you see this, hi your art is amazing.


End file.
